SWISS carried 16 million passengers in 2014

Swiss International Air Lines’ annual passenger numbers exceeded 16 million for the first time last year. All in all, some 16,169,411 passengers were transported, a 1.3% increase on the 15,968,833 of 2013. The result was achieved with 1.6% fewer flights, too: 144,116, compared to the 146,436 of the previous year. Of these, 125,901 (down 2.2%) were within Europe, and 18,215 (up 2.9%) were on intercontinental routes.

Systemwide, SWISS raised its annual available seat-kilometre (ASK) capacity by 1.8% last year. Total traffic volume, measured in revenue passenger-kilometres (RPKs), also increased by 1.8%. On its European network SWISS increased ASK capacity by 0.1% while RPK traffic volume rose 2.0%; and on its intercontinental services ASK capacity was raised 2.6% while RPK traffic volume was up 1.7%.

Seat load factor for SWISS’s intercontinental services amounted to 86.5% for the year, down 0.8 percentage points from the 87.3% of 2013. Seat load factor for the European network was raised 1.4 percentage points, from the 76.2% of 2013 to 77.6%. Systemwide seat load factor was unchanged at 83.7%. Seat load factor trends cannot be correlated directly with revenue developments, however, as yields (average revenue per RPK) remain under pressure.

Swiss WorldCargo posted a cargo load factor (by volume) of 79.4% for 2014, a 0.5-percentage-point improvement on the 78.9% of the previous year. Total cargo sales for the year were up 5.6% in revenue tonne-kilometre terms.

SWISS will be presenting its 2014 financial results on 12 March.